


The Different Brother

by ThefirstRanger



Category: Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan
Genre: Book 8 - Ranger's Apprentice: The Kings of Clonmel, Gen, Halt and Ferris centric, Ranger's Apprentice AU, personality swap?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 01:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20715635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThefirstRanger/pseuds/ThefirstRanger
Summary: Halt tried to kill his brother Ferris three times before Ferris left to go to be a ranger in Araluen. This is what happened between the two brothers. Sort of a personality swap between Ferris and Halt."Ferris and Halt have always had a strained relationship. Sure, it had taken a while to build up to attempted fratricide, but Ferris liked to think that their shared childhood wasn't too terrible to spend together. Maybe chaotic and uneven in the amount of affection received, but not terrible. Definitely not terrible enough to justify Halt whacking Ferris on the shoulder with a paddle and leaving his younger brother for dead in a river. Or maybe that was just Ferris kidding himself."





	The Different Brother

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, Halt was the one who attempted to murder his brother, Ferris, who he thought was a threat to his throne. 
> 
> Enjoy and comment :)

Ferris and Halt have always had a strained relationship. Sure, it had taken a while to build up to attempted fratricide, but Ferris liked to think that their shared childhood wasn't too terrible to spend together. Maybe chaotic and uneven in the amount of affection received, but not terrible. Definitely not terrible enough to justify Halt whacking Ferris on the shoulder with a paddle and leaving his younger brother for dead in a river. Or maybe that was just Ferris kidding himself. 

Their parents had always secretly and sometimes not so secretly thought Ferris would make a better king. He was less prone to rash outbursts and insulting people than Halt was. But Halt was the first born and the King and Queen had to work with what they had. When he was young, Halt didn't want the throne. He wanted to run around and play like Ferris did, but his parents squashed that thought. Halt was piled with court work and eventually any thought of throwing away his kingly responsibilities vanished. His resentment of Ferris remained and festered like a bad wound. Ferris didn’t pick up on this tension until one day he offhandedly mentioned that he wouldn’t mind being king to Halt. The immediate narrowing of Halt’s dark eyes and the barely contained suspicion in them alerted Ferris to his mistake. He immediately back pedaled and it seemed to placate Halt, but the tension between the brothers was now out in the open. 

Over the years, Ferris and Halt grew apart. Ferris found himself being ignored more and more at court while Halt assumed more and more duties as the crown prince. More often than not, Ferris could be found training outside with an older man named Pritchard. He didn’t start training Ferris in the ranger skillsets, but first established a friendship with the young prince and helped him understand that one didn’t need to be part of the royal family to change the world. Ferris is apprehensive at first, however, he comes to the realization that he would be trapped by court life and his brother. Halt always had eyes on him, there was no way he would have been able to sneak out of the castle and train outside, not that he wanted to. (Who was he kidding? Of course he wanted to.)

Three years after he first meets Pritchard is when the first attempt happens. Ferris is eating some delicious shrimp at a family dinner when he starts to feel sick to his stomach. It’s the most painful feeling Ferris has ever experienced, but maybe not as painful as seeing Halt’s smug face as he is rushed by him at the dinner table amidst the concerned faces. Several hours later, Ferris is fine. The physicians assure him that it was a mild case of food poisoning, deep down in his heart, Ferris knows better. 

His training increases and soon it’s rare to see Ferris in the castle at all. The brothers almost never see each other anymore and maybe it’s for the best thinks Ferris. It’s been so long since the shrimp incident that Ferris has almost convinced himself that it really was an accident. This thought is banished when several tiles nearly hit his head while he was out on a walk in the courtyard. Not too suspicious considering that Dun Kily castle was very old, but out of the corner of his eye, Ferris saw a figure dart behind a tower and he just knows. He knows it was Halt. 

His prized bow and arrows are placed inside a hollow tree near the river. It used to be the place where he would meet Pritchard for training before Pritchard went back to Araluen to see his apprentice Crowley, who Ferris should meet if he was ever in Araluen. A small survival pack is added. Just in case something happens. Ferris doesn’t think anything will happen per say, but Pritchard drilled into him the importance of being prepared for anything. 

A year later, this pack comes in handy. Halt overhears, eavesdrops really, his parents talking about how Ferris would have made a great king and he gets scared. There’s been talk by the servants that the king might break tradition and appoint Ferris as king despite not having the proper training for it. Nothing might have come of these conversations, the king never would break tradition, but it’s another reason for Halt to doubt himself. He knows people don’t like him as much as they like Ferris. He doesn’t care. Kings don’t have to be liked, but the idea of losing the seat that had been forced down his throat for the past eight years was too much for Halt to deal with. Halt wanders aimlessly around the castle grounds, stopping when he sees Ferris standing still on the riverbank. His perfect younger brother who doesn’t want the throne but is still the favorite no matter what Halt did. 

Fire burns in Halt’s dark eyes and he doesn’t think, just acts. A wooden paddle is swung and Ferris falls to the ground, not moving. Halt panics and throws his brother into the rushing river to his death. This starts a habit that Halt will never shake, throwing people into water. The first time he grabs a particularly irritating courtsian and throws him into the water, Halt is seized by this memory and throws up.

Ferris wakes up as soon as he hits the icy water, startling him awake along with the realization that his brother threw him into the river. He can’t go back to Dun Kilty, he’ll lose his life. The course of action is to follow Pritchard and go to Araluen, maybe find this Crowley fellow and become a ranger while there. Anyplace except back home with his parents and brother. Ferris grabs his pack, his bow and arrows, and his speckled cloak and heads off. He’s only eighteen. 

One long journey to Araluen later, Ferris meets Crowley in the midst of a bar fight. Crowley reminds Ferris of Halt a little too much with his impulse and temper, so they don’t become quite as fast friends as Halt and Crowley would become, but Ferris learns that Crowley was defending a barmaid and warms up to him. By the time they meet Morgarath, the two young men are like brothers except in Ferris’s case, better than his actual brother. 

Morgarath doesn’t remind Ferris of Halt, but Ferris knows how deep corruption goes and how it can be masked. He knows what the reign would be like if Morgarath would be in charge. Morgarath interrogates Ferris, asking for his last name and Ferris has a name prepared for him. If Morgarath is as influential as Ferris has heard he is, there’s a chance he’s heard about the death of the Hibernian prince of Clonmel and Ferris wants to make sure no one can ever find him. Morgarath meets Ferris Roush, a fake last name derived from the Ferris’s butchered pronunciation of the Gallican word for rock. That same night, Ferris Roush declines a job offer from Morgarath and Ferris and Crowley have to ride away that next morning. 

Crowley and Ferris end up saving Araluen and become close friends with a friendly baron named Arald and the Crown Prince Duncan. Crowley becomes the commandment of the Rangers Corps and Ferris becomes his right hand man and top notch ranger. Crowley constantly calls on Ferris to finish his paperwork for him. (Ferris always begrudgingly does the extra paperwork. It’s more interesting than royal paperwork about harvest crops)

Less grim and grumpy than Halt is as a ranger, Ferris is guarded and pensive, talking only to people when he has to. He quietly commands attention and can sneak around the best of them. Ferris is excellent at shooting, but he has to practice constantly to keep his skills at their best. His eyes flit around constantly, looking for threats everywhere, though this habit has lessened over the years, all but disappearing once he takes Will as his apprentice. 

Ferris is able to connect with Will by telling him how to deal with Horace’s bullying, drawing from his personal experience with Halt. There’s also more emphasis in Will’s training on strategy and planning. Ferris still gets drunk and gets himself exiled in order to rescue Will from Skandia. It might be the most reckless thing he has ever done, which is saying something considering his track record. 

In this universe, Halt is the infamous king of Clonmel. A grim and ruthless king, he is known for his unwillingness to suffer fools and his temper. This temper stems from not being able to properly express his frustration at the world and it’s injustices. Despite this somewhat good sentiment, Halt is not a great ruler. He isn’t fair and acts quickly over slights, leading several courtsians to be thrown into the moat personally by the king himself despite the protests of his advisors. Halt’s quality of rule declined severely after his beloved younger sister, Caitlyn, died from a prolonged illness. It’s a volatile time in Clonmel for Halt and in his desperation, he makes a deal with a con man named Tennyson to distract Dun Kilty citizens. This deal quickly spins out of control and Halt finds himself wallowing in trouble. This is where Ferris comes back into the picture. 

Ferris has an awkward time telling everyone that his older brother is the king that allowed Tennyson to gain so much influence. Ferris never told anyone about his secret, though Crowley, Pauline, and Duncan knew or suspected to varying degrees. Duncan had seen King Halt at a diplomatic session from a distance and wondered why the King of Clonmel looks so much like his best ranger. Crowley suspected Ferris was the dead prince since Ferris was all Pritchard talked about and how could the sudden appearance of a mysterious Hibernian and the disappearance of the Hibernian prince not be connected? Ferris all but told Pauline his entire backstory, omitting the part where he mentioned he was royalty but keeping the other details. In this universe, Ferris and Pauline are more emotionally similar and Ferris opens up to Pauline a tad more. He, Will, and Horace travel to Dun Kilty to stop Tennyson. Ferris has his hood drawn deep over his face as he and Horace enter the castle, but the hood comes down as soon as they enter into the private room with Sean O’Carrick and King Halt. 

Halt’s face goes white before he shakes off his remorse and surprise. Ferris and Horace try to negotiate with Halt to stop Tennyson, but there’s a reason Halt has stayed in power all these years: he’s a stubborn and powerful man. He refuses to help them. Halt doesn’t want money, he wants to keep his throne and to see his little brother beg for his help. Ferris is not too proud to beg and asks Halt if they can continue the conversation in the adjoining cloak room so Horace doesn’t see Ferris beg. Halt agrees, but when the brothers move to the cloak room, Horace stops Halt. He asks if he can come with them because he wants to see Ferris get taken down a peg. Halt is delighted at this mean streak and Ferris just look even more downcast but resigned. Right as Ferris starts to sink down to his knees, Horace bops Halt on the head, knocking the smile off his face and knocking him out. Ferris gets up and smiles at the young knight, their plan working exactly as they had predicted. Sean O’Carrick walks out with his uncle and Horace behind them, leaving Halt tied up in the cloak room. 

Halt isn’t assassinated by assassins like King Ferris was in a different universe. Ferris comes back after beating Tennyson and increasing Halt’s popularity with the common people. The brothers talk with each other and Halt starts to realize that Ferris never really wanted the throne, he never meant to undermine Halt. Halt also realizes that he never really wanted to be king, it was always forced upon him so he felt like he had to accept it. Ferris softens and forgives his brother who embraces him. The brothers part, not close, but closer to understanding each other. 

Halt cleans up his act and starts to properly groom his nephew Sean to become king. Sean, in the future, will become one of the best kings Clonmel and Hibernia has ever seen. Halt, after he retires, goes on a trip to Araluen. Relations between Ferris and Halt have improved in the years since Tennyson’s uprising and the brothers are confident enough in their abilities to not murder each other when Halt comes on a visit. 

It’s always an eventful time when Halt, the former king of Clonmel, comes to visit Ferris. There’s shouting matches and fights, but genuine reconciliations and apologies. Pauline meets Halt and sees what Ferris might have turned out to be like if he stayed in the royal life. There’s a spark between Halt and Pauline, but neither one act on that spark. Ferris and Pauline never become officially romantically involved despite the abundance of rumors surrounding the couple. Ferris, the first time Halt comes to visit him in Araluen, offers to let Halt ride his horse, Sunny, in a seemingly innocent offer. Of course, Halt doesn’t ask the code word and is thrown off of Sunny in an instant. Ferris isn’t above poking some fun at his formerly estranged brother. 

Halt and Ferris in this universe are able to hash out their problems with each other and find some measure of forgiveness. All is good.


End file.
